Spring, Glorious Spring!

Today is one of the 10 best days of the year. The widget on the lower right corner of my screen says "Now Mostly Sunny, 61 F". Can it get better than this after a long, cold, hard winter? Maybe it can, tomorrow is supposed to be just as clear and bright and 70F. Time to shave my legs. (Is that considered over-sharing?)

A bunch of you have been giving me crap about not blogging often enough. Maybe I would blog more if you would leave some comments! It's hard to know if anyone is reading if you don't say anything. Maybe I should get one of those widgets that counts hits on the page. Yeah, that's the ticket. Hey, Tim! How do I do that?

I also, finally, uploaded all of the pictures that were on my camera. I'm not going to overload you all, dear readers, with all of them...but i think I'll start posting them in groups and catching you all up on what's going on.

So, back in February, we needed a getaway, and so we went to the famous Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, MA.




It's been a continuously operating inn since the 1700's and I've always wanted to stay there. The economy being what it is, and tourism being down, I got a great deal for the weekend. What's more, we got upgraded from a queen-sized room to a king-sized SUITE.

Of course, the first thing I did was take pictures of:

The living room:



The bedroom:


Note the king-sized bed swathed in high thread count 100% cotton!!

The bathroom:


Now, what I'm not showing you (because the pictures don't do it justice) is the 2 person, walk-in shower with 2 hand showers, 2 rainforest shower-heads, and about 100 side-jets. Let's just say that between the tub and the shower, we were both squeaky-clean.

And the view from our room:


Yes, heated outdoor pool and hot-tub OPEN in FEBRUARY

So, that was February....and now it's April.

I'm trying to get control of my life, which for lots of reasons I feel like I just been returned to (already in progress), and some of what I'm doing is trying to take a daily walk. Today I added the camera, so I can show you signs of Spring in the North Country.

Winter is our predominant season, lasting from November to March, and now in Mid-April, we're just getting crocuses:


and Forsythia:


And the magnolias are just starting to bud:


And that's when my batteries died....sigh.

Tomorrow there will be spinning content and maybe knitting (maybe even writing...who can tell?)

Home Again, Home Again

Hmm. Did I tell ya'll I was going on vacation? I meant to. I also meant to post from Cape Cod. I brought my laptop, I even had hi speed internet. But I lacked motivation. I did, however, spend at least some part of every day on the beach. Hours on the beach. Hours spent watching the surfers, watching the waves, listening to the surf. I discovered something I forgot about myself: With the sun on my shoulders, sand between my toes, the ocean in front of me, the sound of the surf in my ears and the scent of Coppertone in my nose, I am a happy girl. There is very little that makes happier than that.

So, on to the news...

We arrived at The Southfleet Motor Inn, in South Wellfleet on Sunday. It was an okay place. Unfortunately I immediately disliked the desk clerk who tried to stick us in what had to be the worst room in the place (right next to the service storeroom and had a trash can right outside the door). When I complained, he gave us a different, smaller, room. This all in a motel during the middle of the week, before high season. In fact, for most of the week, we were the only people in OUR BUILDING. I'm going to write to the owner.

Anyway, the first night we were there, we unpacked, went out for dinner at Arnold's Restaurant . Calling it a restaurant is going a little far. It is a Cape clam shack. And I had the best fish and chips I've ever had and got to eat with sand between my toes. I agree with Anthony Bourdain, food tastes better with sand between my toes.

Then we were treated to the most awesome sunset. This was taken from Marconi Beach. To get to Marconi Beach, you descend two flights of wooden stairs from the top of the dunes down to sea level. The picture doesn't even come close to the stunning fiery display that the sun and clouds put on for us. It felt special. It felt like the powers that be were saying, "yeah, you've had a sucky three years since you were here last, but that's over."

See, the last time we were on Cape Cod was for our honeymoon in June 2005. A month after that my mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer that took her life three months later. So the happy, happy, joy, joy of wedding and honeymoon kind of got lost in the really sucky next four months.

This vacation was, now that the initial stage of grief processing seems to be behind me, was a honeymoon do-over.

Monday found us....on the beach! Nauset Light Beach this time. Nauset Light Beach had 3 flights of stairs descending from the dunes. You have to realize that these dunes are 80 feet high. That's really, really, tall. After sleeping late (we were on vacation after all) we spent a really tough day watching the surfers and the waves. I kept thinking about taking a book out of my bag, but then another wave would come along and I had to watch it crest....and then another....and another....and then four hours had gone by. Dinner that night was at Moby Dick's where we enjoyed a mixed "clambake" of steamers, lobster, corn and coleslaw. Calling Moby's a restaurant is also stretching things a little. It's also a clam shack. Are you starting to see a pattern?




Tuesday we went into Wellfleet. Imagine my surprise when I realized that I had channeled the description of this town when I was creating Westham, the fictional town that my novel (yet to be published) is set. Wellfleet is exactly what I think of when I think Cape Cod fishing village. Here are some photos:





































In town, we found a thrift shop and hiding in among the needlepoint books was this gem, which I bought for $1.00. Some really gorgeous patterns in there. Some will make my brain bleed, but gorgeous nonetheless.






After that, we went .....to the beach! We spent four or five hours....watching the surfers, etc. on Coast Guard Beach. Coast Guard beach had fewer stairs. None, in fact. Just a steep path. Needless to say, this became our daily beach destination. We stayed at the beach so late, and were so tired when we got back to the motel, that we brought in dinner from the clam shack next door to the motel. I don't remember its name, it's not important. We had sauteed calamare and grilled scallops. They were delicious!!










Wednesday we hunted for yarn stores. You knew it had to happen, didn't you? We started at The Yarn Basket in Eastham, MA.
Yes, that's an Ace Hardware sign above the door. Don't ask me, I don't understand it either.



But I bought some lovely Araucania Ranco Multi. Again, the photo is not showing off the lovely colors. I fell head over heels in love with this yarn. Yummy.






Then, we headed over to Ladybug Yarns. What a delightful shop. I had a long talk with the owner, during which time, I realized that Tim and I have decided that when we retire, we're going to move to the Cape. Of course, this being 16 or so years in the future, it is subject to change.


There, I had to have...absolutely HAD to have...a yarn magnet for my car. Oh yeah!!! In fact, I bought two. One for my car, and one for the car of one lucky friend. So...what's it worth to you?

Thursday we headed down to Chatham, MA.
Yeah, it's lovely there. The general store sells YARN!!!

And then we drove to Harwichport and Adventure's in Knitting. Which was ALSO a lovely shop, well stocked with Noro, but I didn't find anything that really screamed my name. maybe I was just getting tired and couldn't hear it. But we had lunch and then we....went to the beach.


Dinner that night was again eaten at Moby's. Lobster twice in one week. Yummmm.


Friday morning we spent 3 hours on the beach before hitting the road for the loooooong drive home.












On the way, I finally finished (with the exception of grafting the handle - because I can never remember how to Kitchener without instructions) the World's Ugliest Market Bag Between the numerous mistakes that I didn't bother to go back and correct, along with the two tone yarn (same dye lot, but one ball was in a plastic bag for a year, the other wasn't) I think it is perhaps the ugliest thing ever to come off my needles. However, it will be functional, and that's its purpose.

I have started another market bag which will be rainbow striped, using up all the different colors of kitchen cotton that I have lying around.















We reached Albany at 6:00pm. Just in time for Tim to drop me off at the Capital Region Romance Writers of America conference, from which I just got home.

Phew.

Tomorrow is Father's Day, so we drive 2 hours to my brother's house for the annual FD barbeque.

I think I need a vacation from my vacation!